March is a month traditionally dedicated to IEG’s annual conference – it is a month that awakes inspiration and reminds me why I am in this business. 

Lesa Ukman started her keynote speech with Google’s human resource management snapshot: each employee dedicates 80% of his working time to his or her regular tasks and 20% to his or her personal interests. Of course many great ideas come out of those 20% and at the same time people are more effective performing their regular tasks. I asked myself: how do I split my time between work and so called “personal interests”? Most of the time I give 120% to regular tasks and it is only during sleep that I have time for my “personal interests”. IEG’s annual sponsorship conference 2012 definitely gave me numerous new ideas and a lot to think about. And the most important: it always gives me a special super-power to do this business on underdeveloped market with “everything is possible” attitude.

Lesa said that the future of sponsorships is in fusion of empathy, research, technology and creativity. Emotions drive behaviour and companies are partnering with non-profits because they are driving their business as well. Social responsibility thrives into social opportunity.  Two great examples supported her statement: Timberland and Hublot – both confronted with high competition and particular customer behaviour. And they were both able to manage their business through great partnerships in sports, social, environmental spheres of our lives.

In general, I think sponsorships have been developing in three main directions:

• “EYE sponsorships”: Sponsorships as an advertising tool which is just compensation for classic advertising campaign. Brands like P&G and Gatorade etc. want to differentiate from other brands (not just direct competitors) with special partnerships which enhance unique (mostly) visual communication.
• “TOUCH sponsorships”: Sponsorships as a marketing platform for product development and other marketing Ps. Today, we usually see these kind of sponsorship programs as long-term partnerships which create much more than just unique model of marketing communication. Wendy Clark from Coca Cola showed great examples of how their partnerships bring both sides – sponsor and sponsee – to a new level of marketing.
• “MARRIAGE sponsorships”: In my opinion the essence of sponsorships. When your business is driven by sponsee and sponsee business is driven by sponsor. In this type of sponsorship corporate communication, marketing communication, marketing, sales, product development etc. are not only closely connected, but they breath the same air. Hublot-Ferarri partnership is a great example of that. Mr. Biver called this kind of partnership a marriage.

I think every partnership should be based on matrimonial values. But can we in these turbulent times really give our brand the essence only with one partner? We should spend even more time on different partnerships and build new business opportunities – like Timberland did with Earthkeepers – and not only “complete our to-do list” of partnership activation programs.

Supporting and helping each other by sharing experiences, knowledge and inspiration are values that IEG conference and especially Lesa and Jeff give me every time I listen to their speeches, lectures, panels etc. Dear IEG team, I hope I will be able to support your priceless effort to make leap in our minds for sponsorships as long as possible.

I strongly believe that we will meet again next March!

Many national teams preparing for EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine have already presented new kits. Why are football fans much more sensitive about kit changes in football/soccer than tennis fans?

Can you imagine Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal or Novak Djokovic playing in the same T-shirt design (and other apparel) throughout the season? Guys sometimes change their T-shirt during the match (and female part of audience is very much keen on those kind of moments :)) and clothing brands have made great effort in showing-off their products. Can you name a brand which wouldn’t like to have “a moment for sponsors” before each Grand Slam or – if speaking in terms of their potential for media exposure in time – four times a year? This means four peaks a year, four opportunities for driving sales, sponsorship events etc.

Many arguments of those opposed to changing national team’s kits say that we build worldwide recognition and image of national attributes. That is true, but it takes decades and teams have to be very successful at the biggest competitions. Brazil, Netherlands, Spain, Germany are great examples of that. But all countries don’t have the same results and such a long history. I think each country has to make its own kit strategy. It is great to be a national team of a country with wide recognition and rich tradition, but especially in Europe there are many countries with only about 20 years of statehood. Can you recognize the kits of Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Montenegro or Serbia? We Slovenians often look accross our southern border at Croatian national team which for us has a very recognizable kit with red and white chessboard pattern. But how much of it’s success depends on red-white-(sometimes also)blue kits and how much on their sports results?

In my opinion it is good to know what others are doing, but if you want to differentiate than you have to have your own vision, idea, strategy (whatever you call it). For example, Germany has changed its away kit to green. Many fans outside Germany were totally surprised by this choice of color. But what Germany wanted to do was to emphasize the winning spirit of the 1976  national team which was playing in green T-shirts. The green color has a meaning/story behind it and that’s all what matters to their fans.

New away kit of Slovenian national football team reminded me of those high school days when we had to read famous poems and interpret them. Interpreting symbols and words has always been a special thing for my imagination. And when we want to use new or changed symbols in sports kit’s design, we should think about possible interpretations. New slovenian football kit reminds me of our mountains in summer (green line) and mountains in winter (white line). Blue is a color of blue sky: freedom, unlimited wishes and goals. Blue as a symbol of unlimited sky is quite important for a country with 2 million people and less than 2,000 professional football players.

And new blue football kit is also a symbol of positioning Slovenia as an important football nation: sports clothing sponsor Nike is taking Slovenia to the same level as other football nations. We are not small at all :) And we have much more likeable blue kits than Spain :)

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Recently I’ve been working with several small sports, social and environmental organisations, and after a few months I realized that I’ve been listening to a strange phrase for too long a time: “We are small, we can’t afford to be that professional.” Were “the big” big at the very beginning or was there a time when “the big” where small, too?

There is always a special magic when working with a small or a big organisation in the field of sponsorships. With the small you handle a lot of things, not just sponsorships, but also marketing, communication, development of new products etc. When you work with a big organisation, your challenge is to find niche opportunities for sponsorships while you can focus exclusively on your field of work. I can find driving forces in both types of organisations.

Yes, for sure, there is a big difference working for a small or a big organisation in the field of sponsorships. But I don’t think professionalism should be a question of size: in a small organisation one person is responsible for many functions, but he or she has to be an expert and a businessman (woman) in all fields that he or she handles. But when you work with a bigger organisation, you have to handle bigger (and more diverse) target groups, more partners and members, bigger budgets etc. Every big organisation came out of a small one.

When you are confronted with the difficulties of a small organisation I think you have to be focused on professionalism and great content – the latter doesn’t depend on size. Sooner or later if you work hard and professional and are focused on organisational goals, success and growth will come.

The responsibility to perform at your best should hold true for any position (not just in sponsorships). But in daily life you meet different profiles of people: some go to work just to get “that damn salary”, other to get out of the house, and unfortunately only a handful of people because they want to make progress in a society. But I believe you can make anybody (well, almost …) become a dedicated employee if he or she has the right motivation.

Many small organisations grow up from common friendship interests, but when you decide to formally establish an organisation, you have to understand that you are not just a person with specific interests, but you represent organisation with formal characteristics. You have to take care of all aspects of business operations. Although you are a non-governmental organisation, you are responsible for financial aspects of your service as well. Even more: as a non-governmental organisation you have to be more aware who will your customers (or sponsors) be. If a toothpaste supplier doesn’t care about who buys it’s toothpaste, you as a NGO will not accept every company as your partner.

If you are small, it means you are more flexible and fast – you can implement the wildest and the most creative ideas to make more people more aware of the issues you tackle. I see many companies don’t trust or even give a chance to introduce themselves to a small organisation because they assume the small are less professional. By believing that I can say that you are overlooking some great, creative and never-seen-before ideas which can help your business in different ways. It’s quite possible you can’t make a worldwide program with a small organisation for millions of volunteers, however you can make a worldwide impact partnering with a small organisation carrying a great idea that works.

Image via Wikipedia

Branschforum 2011 was for the first time that Swedes organized their own sponsorship conference. I was surprised earlier this year how many Swedish sponsorship professionals attended IEG sponsorship conference in Chicago. It didn’t therefore came as a surprise that many more came to Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm at the end of August.

The program was promising: Lesa Ukman of IEG, Jeff Povlo of Scape, John Amaechi of John Amaechi Performance, Rod O’Connor of AEG, Matt Rossetti of Rossetti Architecture Assoc., Bob van Oosterhout of Triple Double, Henry Stenson of Ericsson and many more. I must be honest: my main decision to come to Swedish Branschforum was the fact Lesa and Jeff held presentations there. But today I deeply recommend Branschforum (although from time to time it is good to understand Swedish :)) as a place to meet great people who work with many different sponsorship properties in Sweden and globally and to listen to best sponsorship consultants and speakers from all around the world.

Lesa Ukman held the first presentation. She always finds great new examples of sponsorship activation. She started by introducing today’s media landscape. She divides media into four groups: paid, owned, earned and shared media. In her opinion there is a trialogue taking place in today’s media landscape. Paid media confront other types of media and are loosing numbers on behalf of owned media. Lesa presented numbers of Red Bull Facebook likes (more than 22 million) and their YouTube impressions (more than 179 million views). She also presented Volkswagen’s campaign for their brand Fox in Sao Paulo. Volkswagen sponsors Planeta Terra Festival, the biggest music festival in Brasil. The festival was sold out. They came up with special contest combining social media (Twitter, Google Maps) and physical space. They hid tickets all over the city of Sao Paulo and people could get more specific coordinates about where tickets were hidden if they tweeted with a hashtag #foxatplanetaterra. The more they tweeted at #foxatplanetaterra, the more map was zoomed in. #foxatplanetaterra also became trending topic on Twitter in Brazil.

Lesa stressed that brands shouldn’t think about campaigns, but movements. She gave an example of Coca Cola’s sponsorship of FIFA World Cup 2010 and K’Naan Wavin’ flag. Her five most important tips for sponsorship activation:

• Find the Emotion
• Magnify Reflection
• Invite Participation
• Enable Interaction
• Reward Retention

During this year’s trip around central Spain and southern Portugal I made a few interesting photos. Both countries have great sportsmen and those sportsmen have great sponsors. But do they use those great personalities in advertising and promotion in a proper way? I made my opinion. You can check photos and leave a comment.

In Portuguese town Evora I made this photo: Christiano Ronaldo is saying that the bank’s deposit rate is a great final result. The bank Banco Espirito Santo has been CR7′s sponsor since 2003 and they use his photos in advertising on regular basis since the beginning of their sponsorhip. The bank also sponsors Portugal national soccer team, tennis tournament in Estoril (Estoril Open) and some other, smaller sports events. My opinion? I think there have been a lot better photos of Christiano Ronaldo and maybe it’s really just me, but I would rather see him in action. I take in consideration that I saw only one ad from a (probably) more diverse and complex advertising campaign, but if Christiano was my sponsee, I wouldn’t want to see him just smiling :)

I think there must be a sponsorship handbook in Portuguese where among 10 golden rules for successful sponsorship the first one says: If you are a bank, you should sponsor soccer. At the beginning of this comment I must congratulate the Millennium BCP for a great photo: Mou smiling? Something unusual. Maybe it’s just me, but Mou – as I recall – has this grave face with sarcastic look (if he has a great day you can also catch his sarcastic smile :)). I took this photo in Lagos, the capital city for English tourists in the southern Portugal. The main thing I love about this ad is something that is not evident at first glance: Millennium BCP awards customers with a notepad “the Special One” has. Isn’t that great? It seems more personal if there is his signature on the picture, but I have a feeling that they have so many messages for their customers that they couldn’t decide which one is more important. On the other hand, I think it is obvious enough that I don’t doubt Mou is in the picture (and not somebody who just looks like him :)).

Andres Iniesta and Kalise ice-cream: you can check TV ads on Youtube, but I must say that they didn’t make any significant impact on me. Yes, they are different than other ice-cream companies which didn’t include their sponsees on promotional materials, but I think there is a wide spectrum of creativity on how to differentiate from other competitors. TV ads are more likeable and since I know ice-cream industry, most of the marketing business happens on TV. I would also like to stress that it is great to see ice-cream company not trying to convince us with “dreaming taste”, “everlasting indulgence”, “creamy and colorful dreams”. As Iniesta says: “Que es bueno, es bueno.” I agree, ice-cream is good, I don’t need further explanation.

When I saw this billboard, there was just one thought going through my mind: “Did they forget to write something or did they stay speechless after Nadal loss against Djokovic in Wimbledon finals?” I don’t know why you put such a great name on the billboard if your main purpose is to sell low-price cars. I must say that I admire Kia’s transformation from low-cost brand to a great car brand. All the story around this is a great example of marketing-oriented vision of the brand. Maybe they had prepared the billboard in case Nadal won Wimbledon and they just removed “congratulations” from it after he lost. Maybe. Or not. Maybe I will never know :)

I was quite surprised that I saw only Valentino Rossi on Moto GP ads. I expected more Pedrosa and Lorenzo ads. Usually Rossi attracts attention at any moment and in any position, but at first glance I didn’t recognize him at all. Maybe it is my fault, because I’ve been used to see him with Yamaha for so many years and his first year at Ducati is just not bringing him a vast publicity. But it was number 46 that caught my eyes. Generali is one of the major sponsors of Ducati team, but it’s not Rossi’s sponsor. I guess they wanted Rossi to be like a roaring lion (Generali has a lion as a major figure in it’s logotype). I must say that I don’t understand the message “Generali: Passion”. Yes, we all want passion, but do I want to feel passion with my insurance company? As I said, I don’t understand the message. What about you? Do you agree or disagree with my observations?

Image by Powerhouse Museum Collection via Flickr

It is like day and night: there is hard to find a free seat on ATP tournaments, while on the other hand it is hard to find sold out matches on women’s courts. WTA recently started with a totally new, modern, stylish and fabulous advertising campaign Strong is beautiful. Will that really help bring tennis fans in front of TV and to the events?

At the beginning, I must admit that I am a tennis addict. I watch, play and buy everything tennis. This is the only sport that can sell me almost everything. But still, it is hard to watch women’s tennis: so many negative emotions, so many ups and downs from match to match of every player. A lot of people have recently been saying that “new Serena has not appeared yet”.

Do we all expect a new Serena or a new Steffi Graf? There is a lot of young and ambitious girls on tour, but it seems like fashion, media attention and out-of-the-court appearances are way more important than the time spent on court. I don’t want to say that is players’ fault, because the last advertising campaign of WTA unites values which say: “I like being fashionable and having a great make-up”. I agree that WTA has to find a new way of getting more spectators and fans, but by positioning women tennis players as fashionable and stylish is not what tennis as a sport brings to player or fan. Yes, fashion and style are important parts of women’s side of this sport, but I think they are not the essential parts.

At this moment the essential part of women’s tennis are changes. It was really funny when after the last WTA campaign was launched, German tennis player Andrea Petkovic published two photos on her Twitter profile. One was showing her as “Strong is beautiful” and the other pictured Andrea on early morning when her hair wasn’t like the usual and her eyes weren’t opened yet. Maybe WTA should hire Andrea as a creative director :)

In my opinion “changes bring new hope” is the most important message of WTA at this moment. There is no women player that would constantly be winning tournaments and why should that even be a topic all the time? Let’s give young players the opportunity to show what changes they can bring. The last thing I can see in women’s tennis is power. It is a powerless message that won’t bring power to women’s tennis.

Image via Wikipedia

Rafa Nadal drives Kia, Roger Federer Mercedes-Benz. What should Novak Đoković drive? Would it be Audi or Hyundai or Alfa Romeo? Is there a more auto-likeable endorser among “free” endorsers?

Among top 10 ATP players only two of them have a sponsor from the automotive industry*. As I wrote in the article about sponsors among the best tennis players in the world at the beginning of this year, there are just a few of them with more than just apparel and racquet sponsors. I think nowadays tennis players are the best endorsers. Can you imagine a tennis player like Andre Agassi or Goran Ivanišević on courts today? Bad behaviour has been strongly negatively accepted by the media and fans in the last years. I remember a few weeks ago Victoria Azarenka said some bad words during her match with Maria Sharapova. She got a lot of unfriendly tweets and sports media wrote about “inappropriate behaviour by such a successful athlete”. Broken racquets are usually accompanied by loud whistles and other negative responses from the crowd.

Novak has changed his attitude in the last year in general. If his most often published pictures in the last season were with “oh-no-not-again” look on his face and rolling his eyeballs, situation this year is pretty much different. But he didn’t change his values and passion for enjoying a celebrity life off-the-court. He is proud to be Serbian and the same time becomes popular instantly wherever he appears. He speaks a lot of different languages: Serbian as his mother language, English, German, Italian, Spanish etc. Serbian people live all over the world. Especially strong Serbian communities are in Germany, US, Canada and Australia. Serbian diaspora has around 3,5 millions people who live in more than 30 countries all over the world. In the Adriatic region Serbian national pride is the strongest.

Back to Novak. What are his main characteristics that could benefit a sponsor from the automotive industry?

• At this moment sponsor can be sure that Novak will be a part of worldwide tennis history forever – his 43 victories in a row are still making him indelible.
• He communicates with his fans on a daily basis on Twitter and Facebook. And what’s more, he responds to fans’ messages (a rare occurence among celebrities). And he writes by himself which is a great added value for fans.
• He has friendly relationships with all tennis players and he usually takes care for the funny part of their free time. He takes funny videos, off-the-court pictures on a daily basis and he likes to visit VIP and gala events. One day he wants to be a part of Hollywood film-making world.
• He is a great supporter of all social relief activities.
• As I can gather from his website www.novakdjokovic.rs he hasn’t got any sponsors from automotive or other transport company yet.

* Tomas Berdych is sponsored by CarTec Group, authorized dealer and service provider for BMW and MINI cars. I don’t see it as an automotive sponsorship.

It has been many years since IEG has become one of the most used sources of information about sponsorships for me. At this year’s IEG sponsorship conference in Chicago I had a great opportunity to interview Lesa Ukman, the Chairman of IEG. Since the interview I believe there were only a few days that I haven’t thought about at least one of the quotes or inspirations she shared with me. 

How would you explain a CEO or CMO that they are throwing their money through the windows if they don’t activate their sponsorships?

Maybe you’ve heard that expression before, but sponsorship without activation is like buying an electric toy and not getting a battery. All you’ve got is a vehicle. If you don’t build anything around it, it’s not going to have any effect at all. It is not about the spot that you get with a sponsorship, or the name on a jersey, or the signage, or the ID on a program book. It is about deepening relationships with the fans. By doing that you enhance their experiences. Activation is the only thing that will engage somebody enough to notice, care or act.

How did you start with sponsorships? How did people understand sponsorships about 30 years ago?

30 years ago Chicago elected a first woman mayor and I just graduated from colleague and during the campaign I was her volunteer speechwriter. And she took me with her to the city hall. Very quickly her policies brought about changes. There was somebody who said: “You should take over the office for special events”. That’s whenI started with jazz fest, blues fest etc. I started making calls to corporations and saying: “I am calling from the Chicago Mayor’s Office … will you sponsor?” And they said: “Yes”. So I thought: Oh, I invented a new form of marketing! I didn’t realize at all it was because of “the Mayor’s Office”! (smiling) When I left, I began writing a publication about it. I started without a plan. I had a political philosophy major, I didn’t know anything about marketing.

What have been the most significant changes since you started with sponsorships?

I think it went from being niche – involving really cool, funky, creative companies, or sin industry (that’s being abandoned by TV industry) like tobacco and beer industry, or entrepreneurial companies – to something we have today where sponsors are Procter&Gamble, Unilever etc. It is now mainstream. It used to be a business for a PR person in the company, now it’s CMO’s job. It has become a lot more strategic, focused and mainstream.

Which type of sponsorship property has made the biggest step forward in the last decade in your opinion?

No question about it: non-profits. At the end of the day sport is still about eye-balls and a man selling sponsorships to a man. There is still a belief: if I am engaged, everybody else will be. Non-profits have been showing us that you really can change the behaviour – especially among women. They’ve gone from asking for money to becoming equal with their sponsors and partners – building each other’s growth. They’ve come much further than sports. Arts is going nowhere. Unfortunately.

Why do you think it is so?

I think it is a combination of a feeling among the donors that they are artists if they support artists and artists who believe they don’t get enough money from the donors for what they have to give them in return. It is a problem of creativity when they are working together. It is really tragic, because they have such a great audience, great image. That’s the next big thing on my mind.

How does European sponsorships market differentiate itself  from the US market? Aren’t we Europeans usually being rather followers of the US?

Europe has several great innovations in sponsorships like collaboration between Unicef and Barcelona. Unfortunately, at this moment this is not such a big innovation any more. UEFA partnership with FARE (Football Against Racism Europe) is a really good idea. I think that in the US we are really good at activation and sales. We don’t say “Why we can’t”, but “Yes, we can”. But when it comes to big, creative ideas, Europe is a step further. Think about all of the Olympic games initiatives. They all come from Europe, the whole programme for FIFA comes from Europe. The difference is that we in the US don’t look at Europe for ideas, we just do our things. We don’t have as many good ideas as Europe, but we do say: “We have enough money to try again and again” (smiling). In Europe decisions are taken on a CEO level rather than being part of a strategic approach. Great ideas don’t come from lower levels and cannot be adopted on upper levels or all over the place. That’t the big difference.

What do you think about Superbowl and all the advertising drama?

I see Super Bowl much more like FIFA World Cup or the Olympics. If you are smart and strategic you can build sponsorship activation up to or during the event even if you are not a sponsor. For example, look at the Bavaria Beer and what they did during FIFA World Cup. Super Bowl is not for every brand, but for someone like Frito Lay which made consumer generated commercial for the last Super Bowl it was aboslutely fantastic. The main question is how you activate the property whether you are or you are not a sponsor. For me the Super Bowl, the Olympics and the World Cup are all driven by the media, not sponsorships. The biggest part of their rights fees are still TV rights. I see those as media events. NFL is incredibly smart about their brand and who uses it or wants to be their partner. But the ads they charge their sponsors never care much about that.

In the last 10 years we can see a lot of US sports searching for new markets, especially in Europe, and vice-versa: European sports looking for new markets in US and in other parts of the world. Who has more power around the world at the moment?

I think the biggest competition is among New York Mets and Manchester United. They are competing for the global market position. Once you get to a certain market size, you have to decide where you are going to get new revenue. If your plan is to grow, grow and grow, than you have to go for other markets. Soccer – or in the European space: football – is travelling very successful, as does basketball, too. Our football, American football, I do not believe we can sell in countries where they have rugby. It is also a very expensive sport. Baseball, basketball, European football are the most potential sports for growth. I would like to see more table tennis, more tennis and less macho team sports. There are beautiful sports seeing growth. Selling sponsorship rights is also about how you see opportunities for sponsorship activation. Just look for instance at Jao Ming, Chinese basketball player. He played in the US all the time, but there are a lot of Chinese companies who want to be his sponsors.

What can US sponsorship experts learn from Europe and what can Europeans learn from the US?

I think Europe has great ideas. The US work great on day-to-day basis, continually trying something new, changing right away if it doesn’t bring results. In the US I like working together with non-profits to make things bigger. One plus one has to be three in the US. It is not just about buying sponsorship properties, but what you do with them.

How can smaller right-holders gain popularity to compete with the biggest and consequently become equal competitors as much as possible?

You can be an unknown NGO, but if you understand how to build your brand and connect to an audience you can compete with the big guys any time. Rethink Breast Cancer, for example, they have deliberated audience with passion and understood the technique of branding. Red Cross has no clue about branding and no integrity and they only turn to where the money comes from. Organisations should be wide opened and looking for the right partner. I think social media level is a playing field. And social media are driven by social activism for new and small non-profits. All you need is to understand the concept of branding and audience.

Image via Wikipedia

Andre Agassi was not an average tennis player. His results were impressive: grand slams in Australia, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. He also has a gold medal from the Olympics in Atlanta (1996). But the most impressive was his appearance: long hair at the back of the head, short at the forehead, colorful shirts etc. He was, however, even more famous for his rival relationship with Pistol Pete – Pete Sampras. Although Pete was more successful on the court, Agassi is definitely a winner with his sponsorships.

Relationship with Canon has for both partners been the victorious one. “Image is everything” was a slogan of the first advertising campaign of his Canon’s sponsorship. He was a true “fashionista” of 90s :)

The year he won Wimbledon ad on grass was created: white dressed “old-school English” men and women are impressed by the young and wild-by-nature tennis player. Agassi changed the perception of tennis as a classic and well-mannered sport: that’s why Canon included him in the campaign for changing the perception of Canon photo cameras.

In 2003 Agassi became a family man and married Steffi Graf :

There is no question that family brand Agassi&Graf is one of the most successful ones in today’s endorsements. Agassi has been an endorser for other brands too: Head, Schick, Kia, T-Mobile, Nike and adidas. There is a unique story behind Nike and adidas endorsement: Nike was Agassi’s endorser from the beginning of his tennis professional career. In 2005, at age of 32, Agassi left Nike and joined adidas. The main reason for that change was adidas’s partnership with Agassi Foundation.

The last snap shoot of Agassi & Graf family advertising:

Luigi Davide Steffanini is General Manager of the Visa Europe Italian office based in Milan. He joined Visa International as Vice President – Relationship Management – in October 1995 and was held responsible for relationships with Italian Visa members and for the development of Visa business in Italy and later in Malta. For financial enclosure of Marketing magazin we talked about Visa’s sponsorships – mostly about the Olympic games.

We know Visa’s marketing approach in Slovenia mostly through its sponsorships of the Olympic Games. How important is this partnership for Visa in Southeastern Europe?

As the world’s biggest sporting event, the Olympic and Paralympic Games provide Visa with an unparalleled opportunity to promote our brand, to reinforce preference for Visa products and services and to drive card usage. This is the case throughout the world so at an international and local level the sponsorship provides unique and universal appeal and this property is a highly important asset for Visa Europe. It also provides us with an opportunity to showcase our products and services. For London 2012, we will be able to demonstrate the convenient, fast and safe alternatives to cash showcasing prepaid, contactless payments, mobile technologies and other innovations.

What are the main goals of Visa to sponsor big events?

The reasons why we sponsor an event must link into our main business objective which is to drive Visa card usage. We use properties such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games or the FIFA World Cup to help us drive those objectives.

What role do banks play at communicating of Visa and the Olympic Games partnership?

The sponsorship enables Visa to deliver additional benefits to members and their cardholders as we have pass-through rights. This allows our member banks to link themselves to the world’s most recognised sporting event and create business-building programmes. This could mean expanded point-of-sale presence or access to unique experiences for them and their cardholders. The Olympic Games therefore delivers tangible and proven business building benefits to our members, their cardholders and merchants. For example Visa transactions in Greece in August 2004 increased by 55 percent, year over year. At the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, the average transaction at Visa’s ATMs was 35 percent higher than in Athens and 95 percent higher than in Salt Lake City. In Beijing, nearly US$10 million was spent on Visa cards on the opening day of the Games – an increase of 11 percent year on year.

How has Visa sponsorship approach of the Olympic Games changed in the last 30 years? What are the main changes in sponsorship activation?

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of our sponsorship of the Olympic Games. In October 2009 we extended our Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsorship up to 2020. In renewing this sponsorship, we will retain the rights we have enjoyed since 1986 and remain the Exclusive Payment Card and Official Payment Network of the Olympic Games. Over the years, our use of the Olympic sponsorship to support our business has evolved with our business strategy. Today, we use the sponsorship platform to promote the advantages of using Visa instead of cash and cheques and to facilitate the development and advancement of the payment infrastructure in Olympic host countries. For almost 20 years we have developed marketing programmes which are activated by our member banks and merchants worldwide. For Beijing, 45 Olympic-themed promotions were run by Visa Europe members and POS activation initiatives for Olympic promotions took place in 19 markets globally.

Visa’s commitment to the Olympic Movement, National Olympic Committees, national teams and individual athletes has been an important factor in ensuring the continuance and success of the Olympic Games. Since 1986, we have empowered more than 1,000 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls to achieve their dreams by providing financial support, life skills training and valuable marketing exposure in pursuit of their Olympic goals. In the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa supported more than 90 individual athletes from 19 different countries. Visa was also the first worldwide Olympic partner to mount marketing destination programmes linked to the cities hosting the Olympic Games. For London, we can market the destination in the 200+ countries who are sending a team to the Games. We are also looking at how we can take the Games to the retailers in the UK. Our rights include advertising and promotional use of Olympic marks and imagery from the Olympic Games as well as marks from the National and International Olympic Committees. We can pass these rights to our members and also to retailers who can participate in the Games by using the Visa Olympic or Visa Paralympic logos at their point of sale and by running Visa activities and promotions, they too can get involved in the Games.

Which are other important Visa sponsorships for worldwide and European market?

In June 2007 Visa and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) officially became Partners. Through this relationship, Visa has access to a broad range of activities including exclusive marketing assets, competitions, special events and development programmes. Visa’s rights in FIFA’s Payment Services product category will run through to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Over the eight-year period of its FIFA Partnership, Visa will be able to engage in the marketing of FIFA events and competitions such as the FIFA World Cup™, the FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup and other important FIFA global events.
As far as Europe region is concerned, Visa Europe has developed a series of entertainment partnerships that include association with The O2 in London and Berlin’s O2 World as well as partnerships with Palacio de Deportes in Madrid, Mediolanum Forum in Milan and Globe Arena in Stockholm. Visa Europe has signed exclusive agreements with such spaces to strengthen Visa Europe’s commitment to provide cardholders with excellent benefits and rewards. This means that Visa cardholders will have opportunities to experience amazing entertainment to see shows, concerts and sporting events. Visa member banks can also use the facilities for their customers in conjunction with Visa Europe.

What differentiates bank’s marketing approach from other industries? What are in your opinion the most important differences with other industries?

As a payments system, Visa Europe’s role is to continue to invest in the types of products and services we offer member banks, appreciating the fact that different people have different needs and want to pay for different goods and services in different ways. The important thing is that the payment service is more and more rapid and secure. And this is what Visa is working on in particular.